Aging population, rising costs: Medicaid could be half of state budget by 2040

3:23 AM,
May 12, 2013

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This year's Medicaid expansion debate has centered on providing care to more people, but a separate factor will play a large role in how expensive the health care program will become: cost for aging care.

Regardless of whether the state expands Medicaid, its costs will grow dramatically during the coming decades as the Buckeye population ages.

"If we don't do anything differently, we've estimated the Medicaid budget could be half of the state budget by 2040," said Bob Applebaum, a researcher at the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University. "That in itself is simply unsustainable." ...